CHARLESTOWN, a town of West Virginia, capital of Jefferson co., on the Winchester, Potomac, and Strasburg division of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, about 10 m. S. W. of Harper's Ferry; pop. in 1870, 1,593, of whom 537 were colored. It is surrounded by a fertile and beautiful country. There are three or four churches, an academy, and a bank. John Brown was tried and executed here Dec. 2, 1859.